A Mysterious Prom Night One Shot
by Sweetsnow220
Summary: Saaki has been going to Konoha High School for the last two years. Will she find a date behind one of the masks that belongs to her friends, or will she end the year once again as a single, eligible female? Neji/OC, One Shot.


A MYSTERIOUS PROM NIGHT

By: Dragon Lily Fighter/ Sweetsnow220

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Disclamer: Saaki is not my origional character, but one for a person I wrote this for, do not steal her, or I or the owner will be extremely mad and will hunt you down and put you of fire. I do not own any of the Naruto characters, BUT I do own the plot.

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Summary: Saaki has been going to high school for the last two years. It's the weekend of prom and she is getting ready to go without a date. She reaches the school and finds out that the theme for the dance is a Masquerade. They are all given different masks to dance with. Will she find a date behind one of the masks that belongs to her friends, or will she end the year once again as a single, eligible female?

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Saaki had been raised to be kind and gentle, though during her two years at Konoha High School, she had slowly become more sarcastic by nature than kind. Her long purple locks that normally fell to the middle of her back was pulled up in a beautiful crown, two shorter strands of hair falling to frame her beautiful featured face. A thin delicate looking nose rested above full lips that, for the night, were painted a light rose-red. Just above her nose were her purple eyes that sparkled as she stood just inside her front hallway of her home.

Her friends, Neji, Tenten, and Hinata were coming to pick her up soon. She glanced at the clock and then at the mirror in front of her. A light blush was fixed on her cheeks as she thought about the dance. Dateless, but with friends, she was determined to have fun that night. _After all… _She thought. _I'm not the only one without a date tonight._

She thought about the people that were her friends. Sasuke had finally given up on going to the prom dateless and had chosen to go with Sakura, even though he had told Saaki that he was planning on finding a dark corner to hide in until the end. Naruto had finally found out that Hinata liked him, and not two hours earlier, asked her to go with him. This had caused a frenzy at the Hyuuga complex. She shuddered at the thought. Neji had been telling her over the phone that Hinata's mother was dragging Hinata to the mall and getting her the best dress that the family could afford, which was probably a lot. They had been chatting twenty minutes ago, when Hinata was getting pampered by their few servants. Hinata hadn't been planning on going.

Finally Neji had been dragged off because the two of them had been silent for 'too long', which had been a total of 15 minutes. It was surprising that Saaki had been quiet that long. She shrugged it off afterwards and simply thought that it was Neji's quiet nature that had kept her that way. Tenten had received an invitation to the prom by an unknown man, who was planning on meeting her there at the school. Saaki was betting it was Lee, but Tenten refused to even hear a suspicion from any of her friends as to who it was. She truly wanted it to be a surprise.

Kiba had finally asked out one of the girls at the school after finding out that Shikomaru had beaten him to asking Ino to the prom. Only three of her group of friends were dateless. Shino, the other silent one of their group, herself, and Neji. The three had vowed that they would go just to support their friends and not mope about because they didn't have a date.

So in the end, Saaki had let her mother drag her to her room and be maked over by all sorts of spa treatments. She sighed as the doorbell finally rang. She rushed to the door, holding the light blue-purple tinted dress up slightly and walking as fast as she could in the purple high heeled shoes. She was hoping to be out the door before her mother or father could get to the door and find the camera. She knew what happened when the Camera came out. Hundreds upon hundreds of pictures with her three closest friends. She shuddered at the thought as she opened the door.

She almost ended up ramming into Neji, who stood there, waiting for the door to answer. She stumbled to the side just in time, her eyes locking on Neji's attire. He stood a little taller than her, making it easy for when she daydreamed about random boyfriends, to imagine herself leaning against him with her head comfortably under his chin and his arms wrapped around her. She shook her head slightly as the idea came to her. He was wearing a traditional tuxedo with a red rose tucked into the breast pocket.

"Wow!" her mother said as she same out into the hallway, the camera in hand. "Neji, don't you look handsom."

"Mom! Stop hitting on my best friend!" Saaki said, sighing as she shook her head, "Come on, no pictures this time, we are late after all." She said, looking at her mother pointedly. It seemed that that was the cue for Neji to close the door, for just as he did so the two heard a honk from down at the end of the driveway, and the click of a picture being taken. Saaki sighed and both herself and Neji raced down to the waiting car that Neji's aunt and uncle had rented for them. A white limo waited there, the door open, showing Hinata and Tenten waving at their friend that was joining them.

Saaki smiled as Neji let her get in first, her hands holding up her skirt and at the same time, keeping it from showing anything she wouldn't want anyone to see. "You do look nice though Neji." She finally said as she sat down near the rolled up window that led to the front seat. He had entered and closed the door, moving bent over to sit a few seats away from her. She smiled at him to show him that she meant it and that she wasn't being sarcastic.

He watched her for a few more moments and then turned his pale white eyes away, his eyes locking on the tented window in front of him, "You look nice as well. Was it painful?" He asked, pointing to the hair and then where her feet would have been if the skirt weren't in the way.

She smiled and nodded, "Just a bit. I think my ears hurt the most. Mother was jabbering about all the lovely things that happened at her prom." Saaki said, making a disgusted face that her friends laughed at. They had all heard the story she was talking about when they had been hanging out at her house a week before the prom. She shifted as they pulled off the road that would have taken them straight to the high school. "Are we picking up the others?" She asked, looking out the window to get a inner sense of direction.

The way they were heading was west, and the sun that was slowly setting, made the horizon a beautiful mixture of reds, pinks, and purples. "Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning." She said softly, reciting a saying that she had forced herself to remember. She had a fright that she would get stuck in the middle of a rainstorm some day on her way home from the high school, and thunder just wasn't her thing.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Tenten asked. "I've heard you say it several times, and it always influences you if you are going to take a ride home or not." Tenten's question brought the girl's eyes to lay on her. Tenten's brown hair was pulled artistically up into two pony-tails, each a very big curl that landed just above her neck. They were accented by two light blue streamers that had been fixed in, which matched the shimmering eye shadow that she had put on. Her dress was a traditional light pink that matched with Hinata's. It was obvious that Tenten had helped pick it out, because around the waist was a black tie that set the dress into a comfortable look that also matched Hinata's short hair that had been styled to swoop away from her face.

"Oh, umm, it's just an old sailor's rhyme. It was used to predict the weather. If there is a red sky at night, like there is now, then a sailor doesn't have to worry about that night getting a storm. If there is a red sky in the morning, they know to get prepared for a storm. Or so I have heard." She said, smiling, looking back out the window, "I just don't want to end up getting my stuff wet is why I use it. It works about 99.5 of the time."

"Oh." Tenten said, as they pulled in front of Sasuke's house. Out he walked, the dark shadow that had joined their group a few months after Saaki had joined the school. She knew he had a crush on her, but she had told him that she wasn't interested in dating. In fact, she had told everyone at the same time she wasn't interesting after a young man had tried to force her to date him. The young man stepped into the car as the door was opened, moving to sit on the other side of Saaki, silent for the time being, his black eyes seeming to brood.

They rode the rest of the way, picking up Shikamaru, Ino, Kiba, his date, Naruto, and Shino along the way. The rest of them talked excitedly, leaving Neji and Sasuke, who both looked annoyed, out. When they reached, Tenten practically threw herself out of the car, laughing as Lee showed up in front of her, holding a single lily. The rest of them exited the car, before Saaki made her way out, Neji following her. The two of them followed their group, which were all trying to find their dates or get into the dance.

Neji entered first this time, taking a mask from the table. She blinked as the person taking her ticket smiled, "The theme is a Masquerade. Pick a mask and head on in Saaki." She smiled at him sheepishly and took a purple, white and black mask that was beautiful, and yet at the same time, simple compared to the other masks. She slipped it on and entered. Her light-red lips opened in slight shock as she saw how the Prom council had dressed up the Konaha High gym up to be a beautiful Renaissance theme castle.

She moved around, looking for her friends. She got worried when all she could see was the occasional pair of eyes and outfit of the people. So many people had chosen almost identical looking dresses or tuxedos. She edged along the side of the wall, finding a nice spot about halfway down the wall where she could look for her friends, who were dancing out on the floor.

She had been standing there for about thirty minutes, watching the other students when suddenly, a figure in a black tuxedo stepped in front of her, holding out her hand as a song came on from the speakers. It was one of the more classical dances that most of the high schooler's who were there didn't know. She blinked and shrugged it off, taking the hand. Almost all of thekids had stopped dancing and moved away as a group of students started to dance. They numbed no more than 10, and with Saaki and her mysterious partner, there were 12. She guessed that this was her dance class that she had been taking during her last semester at the school. She smiled as the waltz started, and her partner almost swept her off her feet with the intensity of perfection that he exercised with the dance.

They spun and dipped. Twirling around in perfect symmetry with the other dancers, she heard a loud applause around them. When the dance ended, she curtseyed perfectly to her partner, who bowed, his pale eyes looking up to meet hers as they rose. She blinked several times, before the figure disappeared and she worked her way through the surging students to get to the side and to find her pale-eyed partner.

She searched for an hour, dancing randomly with different people who asked, only to find that none of them had the pale eyes. She had a guess that it might have been Neji who had held her so intimately during the dance, but she couldn't be sure. They had only connected eyes for a little more than a second before he had disappeared into the crowd. She finally gave up and went to the side once again. When she reached there, she saw the figure standing there, his arms folded over his chest, leaning back against the wall, his left leg bent, his foot pressing against the wall.

Saaki stared at him for a few moments. She couldn't speak loud enough to ask if he was Neji, because at that moment, a rock song that someone had requested blared. He pushed himself away from the wall and walked towards the back of the gym, where a door lead to a beautifully laid out paradise for dates was set up. When she exited the gym to the area, the young man had made it to the end of the way, into a pavilion that was set up.

It felt like a dream to Saaki as she strolled down the beautiful lane that led there. The young man turned to her, "Welcome, beautiful young lady. How may I be of service to you?" the young man asked, his voice soft and almost recognizable, and yet was laced with a European accent that was obviously planted into the speech.

Saaki blinked as she stepped up on to the pavilion, ending up just three feet away from the young man. She heard the tease in his words, and smiled lightly, glad to have her mask at the moment. She could feel her cheeks burning as she decided to play his game, "Why, kind sir, I was hoping to see the face of the one who danced so well not an hour before." She said, her own words laced with the same European accent.

"That would not be appropriate at a Masque, my goddess." He whispered, shaking his head. "It would be as if you asked me to undress myself."

She laughed at the young jester in front of her, smiling up at him, "Then may I know your name?" She asked. She saw his lips move, but at the exact moment, lightning and thunder crashed around them and she jerked to attention, looking up at the darkened sky, which she had not noticed earlier, for she had been paying attention only to the young man. The young man's hands were out and wrapping themselves around the young woman, pulling her close just as rain started to pour and splash around them, the pavilion's roof shielding them.

She found herself shifting closer to the young man, who was tall enough to rest his head just right so as to not mess up her hair, but also make her feel safe. When he felt that her body had relaxed a little, he raised his head and looked down at her, "It seems goddess of the dance that you will have to make a run for it to make it inside. I can carrying out though, if you would prefer." He said, seeming all the more noble to the young frightened girl, who was jerking to attention at every thunder crash. He finally decided that she was unable to pay attention due to the rain.

The young man shook his head and pulled her up into his arms, carrying her as a groom may a bride, and rushing to the school, using his body to save as much of her dress as possible. When they reached inside, he rested her gently on the ground in a corner, pressing a cold hand against her forehead. She was trembling slightly from being carried, as she stared up at him with her purple eyes.

He saw slow, dawning recognition growing in her eyes and he rose, escaping into the crowd. She tried to push herself up, before finding her legs trembled too much. She finally made it to one of the tables out in the lobby to sit at. She slowly fell asleep as the night wore on. She had seen the perfect guy for a total of 20 minutes that night, and now, he was gone.

She did not notice when Neji picked her up, and carried her out to the limo, where the other's were sitting. Nor did the girl with the mask still on her face notice that he held her on his lap. What she did notice however, was when the protective feeling that had encircled her was replaced by a pair of parental arms, and when she was laid in her bed, without being changed.

The next morning she awoke, blinking her eyes open to find her hair a mess, and a mask still on her face. She pulled it off and looked down at it. She didn't notice the figure at her desk, dressed up in normal street clothes and a black and white mask that had plagued her dreams the entire night. When she looked up, her eyes caught on the figure and she gasped. Slowly, as if she were still in a dream, the figure rose, moving forward and pulled the mask slowly away from his face.

When he reached her, the mask was in his hand, and his lips were against hers. Neji had finally gained the strength to tell the young woman it had been him that had protected her last night, and that he had liked her for quite a while. He pulled her slowly close, holding her gently as she found herself returning the kiss she had been longing for since a year before…


End file.
